By Evan Sumner

Some hosts have as many as 35 different listings on AirBNB. This is despite claims of a crackdown on such commercial operators by the City of Vancouver and AirBNB.

According to an analysis of AirBNB data carried out by ThinkPol, the average number of properties per host was just under four. A host who goes by the name of Siavash had 35 listings, while another who goes by the name of Sheldon had 16 rentals.

We identified one commercial host with ten properties as Vanessa Franz. We asked Franz to comment on the operation and its possible impacts on housing affordability in Vancouver, but the host refused to respond.

We also identified Cam Auge, an entrepreneur, as a host with four properties on AirBNB. Auge also refused to respond to our request for comments.

We analysed 305 data points of listings of entire apartments or houses, which yielded 892 unique properties and 226 unique hosts, for an average of 3.94 properties per host.

Out of the 226 unique hosts, 125 hosts (55%) had multiple properties for rent.

Last November, AirBNB told Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson that it had removed 130 commercial listings.

“Further to recent discussions I had with your staff, I am informing you that AirBNB has proactively removed more than 130 listings from our platform in Vancouver that we believe belong to commercial operators and do not meet the standards and priorities of our community, nor the guest experience we seek to provide,” AirBNB Canada’s Alex Dagg wrote Robertson.

A month prior, the City of Vancouver had sued East West Investments and its owner Heather Chang for allegedly running an AirBNB in violation of city bylaws.